1st tea Party

Alex is upstairs in her room at the moment, giving invisible tea to a monkey. She's having her first tea party! I set up some of her stuffed animals in a circle on the floor, and she's pouring them tea and giving it to them. It's pretty cute.

Alexis is doing great, and it's hard to believe she's almost two. (I need to make a doctor's appointment for her...) Her language has progressed rapidly, although she still basically chooses when she wants to talk. She says mama and dada all the time, but her favorite expression is "here you go" and "there you go" when she gives you something. Or when she wants something. We're working on that :) She says a bunch of different words, but she understands a whole lot more than she actually says, which is normal. While she does say a few expressions, I've only heard her put words together once or twice, the most notable time when she looked at our wedding picture and pointed and said "daddy shoe" when she pointed to Jason's shoes. It was pretty cool. We're trying to teach her to say thank you, which she's only said once so far.

She's still running around all over the place and doesn't like being contained. We had to run a bunch of errands on Tuesday, and when we went to BJs she was completely unhappy being in cart. I decided to let her roam free and see how she did, and she had an absolute blast! It was a great place for her to roam around because there's not a lot that she can get mess up. Alexis loved it and did really well minding me about staying in the aisle I was in, although occasionally she just wanted to sprawl out on the floor. What are you going to do? Yesterday we had a bunch of errands to run as well, so I let her roam free as much as I could, but I put her in the larger part of the cart now that she's a little older and bigger, and she was much happier than being strapped into the seat part. She's just getting to be such a little kid and no longer a baby. She can even walk down the steps by herself, although she doesn't do it very often. She still has little tantrums when I won't take her down the steps, and she can spend way too much time getting up the steps because she likes to sprawl out on them or the landing. She's got to learn, though, because I can't carry her and a kid up and down the steps all the time. She has really enjoyed having more freedom around the house, especially being in the kitchen while I'm making dinner or doing dishes. She still likes to grab things, but she does a good job for the most part of doing what she's supposed to. (We're trying to instill in her early on a sense that she needs to do what we tell her so that she can learn that's how things are done and can discipline herself. We'll see how that goes, but so far people who take care of her seem to think that she's really well-behaved.) Who knows what Micah will be like?

And now on to Micah Nathanael. Yes, when I sent out the original information I misspelled his middle name, but what can you expect when I haven't looked at the name in over two years? I think everyone knows, but Micah is after Micah 6:8, and Nathanael is from the NT when Jesus says he's an Israelite in whom there is no deceit. The ultrasound from last week said he's right on track and weighs 12 ounces and is due July 19. I definitely look pregnant now! I have a lot more energy than I did the first semester, which is totally normal. However, I still have had a few episodes of morning sickness in my second trimester, but hopefully those instances are over. Next month we're going to start setting up Alexis' new room so that she can move out of the nursery and Micah can move in. I started feeling the flutterins a few weeks ago, but I can now feel full-fledged, tiny kicks and punches, which is probably my favorite part of pregnancy. I keep trying to catch him so that Jason can feel him, but it hasn't happened so far. Soon, though, I'm sure.

Things are otherwise going well, but busy as usual. We keep thinking that at some point things calm down, but I think we've learned that life just doesn't happen that way. I'm in the middle of another class right now, which ends at the beginning of April, and then I'll start prepping for everything Micah-related. We have a houseful of people over the next month or so, which is exciting because we'll get to see people we don't usually get to see. Jason has another trip in late May, but other than that this year looks travel-free after that. And then July is looking in the near future! I haven't thought about it in these terms, but Micah is about four months away. Four months ago I was getting ready for Thanksgiving, and that doesn't sound long ago. (After all, we've been in this house for six months...)

Pictures and videos coming later...